Date: Saturday, June 2, 2018
City: Sherman, IL
Venue: Village Park Amphitheater
Opening act(s): The Blair House Band
Headlining act: Mock Of Ages
Mock Of Ages Setlist:
Wasted
Armageddon It
Let’s Get Rocked
Too Late For Love
Women
Photograph
Love Bites
Foolin’
Promises
Rocket
Hysteria
Let It Go
Animal
Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
Switch 625
Rock Of Ages
We Will Rock You
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Notes:
- Mock Of Ages is a Def Leppard tribute band.
- Second time seeing a tribute band following Thunderhead, a Rush tribute band, on January 18, 2014.
- The set featured just one post-Vault song and nothing from the 21st century.
- On Through The Night: 1
- High ‘n’ Dry: 3
- Pyromania: 4
- Hysteria: 7
- Adrenalize: 1
- Euphoria: 1
- Non-Leppard Covers: 1
- Show #1 at this venue.
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Review:
There are several Def Leppard tribute bands out there, but I had yet to see any live. Most of them don’t come around central Illinois very often. In fact, the only tribute band I had seen was a Rush tribute band called Thunderhead when they played The Pageant in St. Louis in 2014. They actually play there once or twice a year now, so I may very well end up seeing them again at some point. Especially since the real Rush has called it a day.
Def Leppard, however, is still going strong. I have three, if not four, concerts of theirs lined up for this summer. But when the chance to see a Leppard tribute band just a few minutes outside of my hometown, I couldn’t pass it up.
I almost didn’t even know it was happening, since it was part of nearby town Sherman’s Kick Off To Summer Event in their newly opened Village Park. My boss lives in Sherman and told me about it, though I likely would have found out anyway after a meeting with my wedding photographer that took place in a Sherman coffee shop that featured a flyer in the window.
My original plan was to ask my mom to go to the show as a surprise, as I owed her dinner for Mother’s Day anyway. She took it upon herself to ask my dad, which I didn’t mind since it would be fitting for me to drag him to a Def Leppard tribute band since he’s the reason I saw a Rush tribute band. And of course I brought my fiance Brittany along as well.
After dinner, we drove out to Sherman’s new Village Park and headed into the small ‘amphitheater’ where the show would take place. The opening band was The Blair House Band, which was made up of a bunch of older gentlemen playing oldies by the likes of Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, and The Doors.
They played for an hour and then the mayor took center stage to handle the contests for the evening: a Best Dressed Rocker contest and an Air Guitar contest. Both were god awful, but the winners took home prizes.
The turnout for the contests was small, and the turnout for the entire even was clearly less than they anticipated judging by the amount of space set aside for parking. The majority of the crowd stayed at the top of the amphitheater where the food and beer vendors were, at least for the earlier part of the night.
As the Mock Of Ages showtime neared, I wondered what they would play (aside from the obvious) and joked with Brittany about them playing stuff I’ve never seen the actual Def Leppard play live before. Hell, I knew whatever Mock Of Ages were going to play, it couldn’t be more stagnant than what the real Leppard are doing on their summer tour right now.
Finally around 9:30, the stage went dark and an intro tape featuring snippets of all of Leppard’s biggest hits started playing. The stage was minimally decorated, as there were Mock Of Ages banners on either side and some lights on the bass drum featuring the band’s logo.
Most of the band was already on the stage when the intro tape began since they were setting up their own gear. As the intro came to an end, Mock Of Ages kicked things off with “Wasted,” the gem of On Through The Night. If it weren’t for Def Leppard’s Viva! Hysteria residency in 2013, this would have been one I’d never seen Lep play.
As for Mock Of Ages, they sounded quite good, all things considered. Musically they were tight and very faithful to the song, and I was surprised to see the drummer was in fact playing an electronic kit with just one arm.
As soon as “Wasted” was over, “Armageddon It” began and was swiftly followed by “Let’s Get Rocked.”
The singer mentioned longtime Leppard fans asking them to play certain songs, which wouldn’t surprise me since I had seen him mingling with the crowd during the opening act. He introduced the next one as being one of their favorites that’s on the radio, and it turned out to be “Too Late For Love.”
Having only heard Def Leppard perform the song five times (twice in 1999, once in 2002, and twice in 2013) in 54 shows, I was happy to hear it here.
The same goes for “Women,” which segued directly out of the extended version of “Too Late For Love.” Of course seeing these performed by a band other than Leppard themselves isn’t quite the same, but when the real band fails to deliver on making even minimal changes to their set… This will have to do.
More hits followed, including a surprising early rendition of “Photograph” followed by “Love Bites” and “Foolin’.” Some songs sounded better than others, and the more challenging songs certainly showed how difficult it is to even attempt to replicate what Joe Elliott does on a nightly basis.
It’s impossible, in fact.
Not all glory can go to him though, as the backing vocals can’t be replicated either. What Vivian Campbell, Rick Savage, and Phil Collen manage to do nightly is amazing. For Mock Of Ages, one guitarist pulled a Steve Clark by straying away from his mic for most of the evening, leaving the other guitarist and the bassist to pick up the slack.
That was quite apparent on “Promises,” the only post-Vault selection of the evening. I didn’t expect much from the latter half of Def Leppard’s career, but I still hoped for some surprises. I guess even for a tribute band, they are bound by the hits.
As a life-long die hard fan of Def Leppard, part of me was skeptical about how much I would really be able to enjoy a tribute band. I have high standards for Def Leppard performing live, and that carries over to any other band that attempts to perform Leppard’s material. Of course I would be grading on a curve, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I was enjoying Mock Of Ages.
That did come to a little bit of a halt on “Rocket,” as the singer made a mess of both verses in the song. I know if I were in a tribute band, I would be like Mark Wahlberg’s character in the movie Rock Star, striving for perfection. That would especially apply to myself, making sure I got every word right… Even though I would very likely sound like shit! I overlooked any minimal missed or altered lyrics, but “Rocket” was a little too off for me.
Things got back on track with “Hysteria,” complete with the David Bowie “Heroes” tag (the ‘dolphin’ version). The performance lacked the dual-guitar solo, as the other guitarist was relegated to rhythm during the solo.
Former Leppard deep cut-turned overplayed standard “Let It Go” was featuring surprisingly late in the set. It’s one of my top 20 Def Leppard songs, but seeing it at nearly every concert since 2012 has taken the luster from seeing it live.
That segued directly into “Animal,” followed by “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” and a sometimes good, sometimes not so much performance of “Switch 625.”
Not much was left at this point but “Rock Of Ages.” The 11:00 end time had already been reached when they kicked off a full cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” These days, it’s not uncommon for Leppard to feature a cover in their set. I’m glad Mock Of Ages didn’t go down the road Leppard can’t seem to get off though.
Of course that led to the night’s finale, “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” A good chunk of the beer crowd had come down to the front during the second half of the set, so of course there was a party atmosphere by the final song.
Of all the Def Leppard songs there are, the one I feel no band can ever do well enough is “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” The studio recording, overplayed as it may be, is a masterfully written, performed, and recorded hard rock song that managed to cross over to pop radio with ease (eventually). Live, it’s something else entirely. I think Def Leppard has gotten better at performing it over time, as the space between the guitars can make it challenging to convey well in a live setting. It has been perfected in the second half of the band’s career, as I think it has really taken off in the 21st century in particular.
Mock Of Ages gave it their all, but like the many others that have tried, they fell short. Very short. But that’s not meant to be a slight to them, it’s just an impossible song to do well and literally the only band that can do it well is Def Leppard.
Overall, I enjoyed Mock Of Ages a lot more than I expected to and I would see them again if they came around here. Between their show tonight and Def Leppard’s release of The Collection: Volume 1, featuring remastered versions of their first four albums and a bunch of other previously-released material, I’m now primed to see the real band live again. Sadly I’ll have to suffer through Journey first in a quite unearned co-headlining spot, but hey… It’s just the latest in a four year line of punishment that started with Styx (astronomy lessons!), REO Speedwagon (awful stand up routines!), and Poison (Poison!).
Plus Mock Of Ages had me fantasizing about being in a Def Leppard tribute band of my own all night, imagining singing those songs and assembling my own setlist. I wouldn’t shy away from the hits, but I can tell you one thing… I would also never play the same set two shows in a row.
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